Very cool! Someone finally made this! !!

As a lover of all things Hannibal - I have some suggestions you may be intrigued by.

You could shake up their bonuses/terrain weaknesses to be more accurate than any game out there presently. Because - most people are wrong about elephants.

It's not just strength/size. They're not a big horse.

Elephant combat effectiveness: Is actually determined by their psychology.
I've researched them for writing for years...some stuff is mind-blowing.

Couple poor eyesight, a variety of bizarre phobias, (some generalized, some down to the individual) & and herd mentality - and you have panic disaster potential. Potential that worsens in some terrain. Yet, is eliminated in others.

One would naturally think, "they're good on plains but, bad in mountains."
Nope - turn that around. :)

Actually, mountains are perfect. Since they get confused/overwhelmed by the sights and sounds of battle, but see fuzzy - they often do 1 of 2 things in open battle:

1)Bizarrely - stay put. Refuse to move. And...decide to blame/hate a nearby person. Much like a crying, tantruming 2 year old child - but they don't pout, they just...smash them to bits. Friend or foe.
They work on squishing this person into a paste - and continue stepping on the paste for a long time. Ignoring the rest of the battle, and the mahout. If the mahout kicks/yells/hooks the elephant while enraged - a trunk will lift him off, and he joins the paste too. So a mahout either spikes them in the head, or just, lets him do his thing. (While praying.)
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2) Flee from over-stimulation. Often, prematurely. Even if their side is winning. In any direction they chose. Often - its the wrong direction.

Especially if the enemy steps aside to make a straight, unobstructed false "escape route." The elephants will walk quickly into it - to be surrounded. It's how Hannibal lost Zama. Romans side-stepped a charge of 200 elephants, next, lit pigs on fire, which lit grass on fire. They panicked back on their own line and destroyed the infantry formations. (Damnit.)

Plains - are terrible. They see too much, and are terrified of grass on fire. Fear - is when they ignore their trainers.

Grasslands - slightly better, as they can't be set on fire like plains. But, they'll still want to leave and get very difficult. Sitting ducks for long distance projectiles. No cover. Clear shots.

Also - war elephants were always reluctant to charge crowds unless drunk (yes they were given wine!) enraged, or, they thought safety is FORWARD. I must move forward! Then it doesn't matter if their trainers lost control - in either mountains, or forest/jungle.

(Charging straight at the enemy - all their masters wanted them to do. They didn't really want them to engage in combat much, just, get the enemy to break formation to dodge, or, get them running away.)

That's how they are perfect for mountain warfare. Why Hannibal even made it out of the alps when tribes led him to an ambush. Enemies in front/rear - but the elephants charged those blocking the path forward. But, they all went forward. Those soldiers got squished, pushed off cliffs, or ran, peeing.

The cold tho? No penalty.

Mountain cold, actually, is no problem for them. (Long as they have food supplies.) Their surface area/body ratio is great for cold, just like a mammoth's. They do better than horses at altitude (with booties.) Today, wild elephants that step on land mines learn to tolerate prosthetic feet, so, don't laugh, but, booties were probably essential. :)

Hannibal's elephants only weakened in the alps due to running out of food. His guides were traitors. They got stuck a while. Until Hannibal "Moved Mountains with Vinegar." But none of them died there.

Swamp - They died in Italy's wetlands. Getting stuck in mud, and burning too many calories getting out than they could replace every day eating. RIP 47 elephants. (Livy does not mention them dying anywhere else. Not even in battle.) The swamp was actually Hannibal's Waterloo.

Forest - is great for elephant warfare. It A) Keeps them from seeing too much of the battle. B) Protects them from projectiles a bit. (Tree trunks, bushes.) Plus, it's much harder to set a jungle/forest on fire than plains. Plus, the enemy can't do the formation "escape route" path trick in a forest/jungle.

Thick forest is actually the only thing that can hide them. They actually walk silently. On all terrain. Dead silent. Their foot shape smothers all sound to the center - where it doesn't escape to be heard. (Fake elephant stomping sound fx is something I can't stand.)

Imagine the extra shock/fear value to the enemy: Foot soldiers pushing aside a palm frond to come face to face with an elephant line! On open terrain - they can see how many elephants are present. But in forest, they could imagine more than are present. Demoralizing. Terrifying.

Desert - terrible for them. Elephants bodies are best at trapping heat, not shedding it. Their stomachs produce enormous heat in digestion. They require hundreds of gallons of water to drink/bathe in, per day. Each. Without mud and dirt, their skin splits open in the sun.

Dehydration means if they lay down, (because of dehydration,) they die. Rising requires an enormous amount of blood pressure to go from heart to head, and down the legs so they can stand. Like horses, an elephant can't lay down long, or they crush their organs.

So - wild elephants do marathon migration runs in deserts. But NEVER stop until they get out of them, or reach oasis. Battle in the desert, will likely be their end due to dehydration. Even after a win, many would be weak, and lie down.

Oasis? I think, would still penalize them. Unless they were inside a town, and thus funneled, would readily charge down streets. (But does the game even have a modifier or distinguish between open ground and urban warfare?)

Perhaps oasis should just be kind of neutral? They can't light the desert, or the water on fire, after all.

So, Mountains/Forest/Jungle - Excellent. Super damage bonus. Toughness too!
Mountain passes mean enemies can't surround them. Elephants are most vuln in flanks/rear.
Nearly invincible, with the most basic of armor, in the front.
Doesn't have to be metal - picture a few layers of raw cowhides, hard as a dog chew toy - worn like a necklace. Projectiles wouldn't go through all 5 or 6.

Mountain bonus OP?
No. I think, because those terrains can't support giant super stacks without attrition. Often,a bigger army can attack from the hills.
Plus, elephants are MAA, so it's not like you can defend every mountain pass into India with them.
There's a hard unit limit.
But if you do defend a mountain pass with elephants - you should win!
In a world before gunpowder - you should win. :)

Hills? OK I guess. Vision-limiting. Elephants can slide forward on their knees in steep terrain.
Yeah! They did charge down the hill at Lake Trasimene, and pushed Romans into the water to drown. Yeah bonus. :)

Grasslands, a little penalty.
To toughness? They see too much. Get overwhelmed.
Not damage though.
Getting stepped on by an elephant hurts just as much anywhere! :D

Taiga - major toughness penalty. You can shelter in a cave, outcropping, or make a barn for them in mountains. On taiga, they can't get out of the howling wind. Nothing to build with.

Plains/drylands - harsh penalty.
Not only do fake escape route tricks work, but so does fire. Even the smell of a grass fire may cause them to run. Even if they were in a safe spot, you can't control panic.

There's a reason Hannibal's elephants were over in Iberia. They were most effective at frightening cultures that hand't experienced them before. Libyans, and Numidians, etc, were used to dealing with them and would have taken them out easy.

So, what does this mean?
It actually makes sense that these units are more powerful OUTSIDE of Africa, than in.
Any culture that has any experience with them, already knows how they die. Already hunts them, probably.


Hannibal... He cherry-picked the best of every kind of military unit. Utilized specialized troops like differing tools of a surgeon. His genius - knowing where they were most effective. Elephants? Not Africa.

Hannibal should have won, but, nobody knew mosquitoes spread malaria at the time. And he took his army into the swamp. Once most of the troops got sick there, they got stuck there. And mass-died. RIP.

Anyway - elephants are not big horses. They will not do what you tell them to, after a point. If they were just super-cavalry, everyone would have used them. It took true geniuses to realize war elephants even still had a utility at all! (Since once figured out, killing them was trivial.)

So, giving them superpowers in a few specific terrains, with some very steep costs in many others - is historically accurate.
But, since most people don't know anything about what I just said - never truly depicted in games. But you could be the first. :)